English alternative rock band Cornershop have released a new single, “Disco’s Main Squeeze“, in collaboration with English-Indian outfit Pinky Ann Rihal.
— Cornershop (@CornershopHQ) April 20, 2023
The track, released today on Ample Play Records, a record label created by Cornershop’s own Tjinder Singh and Ben Ayres in 2009, and also on Naya Beat Records, the label Pinky Ann Rihal are currently signed to, is a blissful, disco-pop number, featuring exquisite Hindi vocals from Pinky Ann Rihal and Cornershop’s classic and trademark fusion of psychedelic, electronic pop with sitar-driven Indian music.
Watch the music video for “Disco’s Main Squeeze” below:
Alongside the delightful, psychedelic disco music is a music video featuring Pinky Ann Rihal, clad as Hindi hippie disco titans (naturally), being interviewed and performing on a live music programme, Eastern Eye, sometime in the 1980’s. A subtle ode, then, to better times, when disco-pop was at its peak of its powers?
Cornershop was formed in Leicester in 1991 by lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Tjinder Singh, alongside his brother Avtar on bass, Ben Ayres on guitar and keyboards and David Chambers on drums. The band released their first album, Hold On It Hurts, in 1994 and followed this with Woman’s Gotta Have It the following year, but it wasn’t until the release of their third album, When I Was Born for the 7th Time (1997), when the band achieved critical acclaim and found success. The album reached number 17 on the UK Albums Chart and brought with it the single “Brimful of Asha“, a song that, after a remix by Norman Cook, became hugely popular and soon reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart.
Watch the music video for hit single “Brimful of Asha” below:
The album also contained a Punjabi version of “Norwegian Wood” and featured the prominent American poet Allen Ginsberg on the track “When the Light Appears Boy“. Cornershop have gone on record nine albums in total, releasing their latest, England Is a Garden, in 2020.
Pinky Ann Rihal first came to fruition in the early 1980s, created by Harry Rihal and Jati Sodhi, two Punjabi musicians who had immigrated to London a decade earlier. The band also consisted of vocalists Pinky Rihal, wife of Harry, along with Anne Barrett, who in turn was married to the band’s producer, John Hamilton. The group’s first and only album, Tere Liye, was released in 1985 but that hasn’t stopped the band having a continued influence on South Asian rock and pop music since.
You can buy the track here.
